Cassie McCullough

But, yeah, there were definite moments of tension, particularly when the mayor was alone with Millie a few times earlier on that, you know, you just knew what was coming and it was horrible and, yeah, definitely felt like screaming then but what can you do?

These were my favourite parts, hands down.

I love these chapters.

This is the kind of writing that

you know, gets me, I feel really intoxicated on it, you know.

So this alternate spirit reality, you know, and it's not written in this realist style.

And I think that's where Nardi Simpson, you know, in my opinion, when she's at her best, when she's going really wild with her imagination and language and also, you know, obviously bringing in her cultural, spiritual beliefs.

These parts reminded me of really old stories that we hear from our elders and

I felt the same awe and fear and wonder at the ancestors and the spirit creatures.

And Chapter 3 is the first time this happens, and it's when I fell in love with the book, you know, when we're introduced to Jackie Bird and the ancestors in the Sky Camps.

I just thought it was really beautiful.

And there are instances where this spirit world comes through that mundane reality, and particularly in the birth seat.

with the lightning and with Millie's brown eyes changing to blue it's just absolutely beautiful and psychedelic and I loved it.

Yeah absolutely and

And, you know, this is in alignment with the way old Aboriginal stories, dreaming stories, you might know them as, ah, you know, they're not sweet fairy tales.

These are stories that often have very dire consequences for the people who break law or do the wrong thing.

So these kinds of stories, you know, you can almost relate them to the Gothic tradition where, you know, there's always these kinds of lessons and there's these

psychological aspects to what's going on that really bears down and it really stops any of this from being, you know, sweet or utopian at all.

So I've pre-ordered Karen Wild's Where the Fruit Falls, and it came a few weeks ago, but I'm yet to crack it.

So I'm really looking forward to it because I'm